Around Britain in 20 Ferns and their Allies Online

Around Britain in 20 ferns and allies

Ferns have been around for 360 million years, and made up the first primeval forest which covered the planet. When you stand in a damp fern-dominated woodland these days it is easy to be transported back in time with these striking and enigmatic group of plants.

This course will focus of 20 key species of fern. The aim will be to show the key features of each species, using simple and memorable vegetative characteristics that can be used all year round.

The ability to confidently identify ferns can make all the difference between a good and amazing botanical survey, as well as giving huge enjoyment on a walk in the woods seeing how many species you can find in one go.

As well as the key species, we will also look at some of the weird and wonderful species such as the Adder's-tongues, Clubmosses and Pillwort that you might be lucky enough to encounter.

Although it is hard to exactly replicate the experience of learning in the field, this course does have the advantage of covering a wider range of species than would normally be possible, as well as a chance to see some of the vegetative features in close up (and no risk of your notes getting soaked in a rain storm!).

The course will include a pre-recorded tutorial interspersed with short self-tests. In addition there is a full test which can be revisited at any time on our website to help with revision. The tutorial can be paused, rewound or skipped at any point during the 24 hours, giving you the chance to have a break when you want, and go back over any species you are less familiar with.

There is also a ‘bespoke’ ticket option, for which we will set you up with the tutorial on any date of your choosing.

All proceeds from the course will go to supporting our endangered species conservation work.

Schedule

The tutorial lasts two hours and will be available to attendees for a 24 hour period (from 5pm the night before).

Four days prior to the course you should receive an email with all the joining details on. It appears that several work-based servers are spamming messages from Eventbrite, so if you have not heard from us by then, please check your spam folder, and the email address you used for the booking. In the event you can't find the email please be in touch.

About the tutor

Dominic Price is a highly regarded botanical tutor and has been running courses for all levels of ecologists since 2007. He is director of The Species Recovery Trust and specialises in the conservation of endangered species. He is the author of A Field Guide to Grasses, Sedges and Rushes, and co-author of A Field Guide to Bryophytes and The Photographic Guide to Winter Trees and Shrubs.

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Course certificate

This course can be used as part of your Continuing Professional Development (CPD). We invite attendees to download their own certificate and complete the numbers of hours spent on the course, as we are aware some attendees spend more time reading up about courses before the day, and writing their notes up and re-sitting the course tests afterwards. The hours on your certificate should accurately reflect this time.